Ribeira do Neiva fire, August 2016 Ribeira do Neiva, Boalhosa
The fire started on 27 August 2016 in Ribeira do Neiva, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 146 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Vila Verde since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 146 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 146ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 9days
- 27 Aug 2016 – 4 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 8
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 24MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
133 ha reached on 1 Sept3.9 %
-
Boalhosa 117 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre13 ha reached on 1 Sept5.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land57 %
- Agricultural areas21 %
- Broadleaved forest12 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland9.7 %
- Mixed forest1.4 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 0.14 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Aug | 24.2 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 29 Aug | 26.2 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Aug | 24.8 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Aug | 26.9 °C | 45 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Sept | 27.8 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Sept | 27.8 °C | 44 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 3 Sept | 28.1 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Sept | 28.6 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Sept after | 24.3 °C | 49 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Sept after | 22.0 °C | 45 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 8Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 22 km away
- 2,698 haNogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de MurtedaAugust 2016 · 4 days · 22 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 23 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 34 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ribeira do Neiva fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 August 2016 to 4 September 2016 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 August 2016 to 29 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 146 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ribeira do Neiva (133 ha, 3.9 %); Boalhosa (13 ha, 5.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 0.9 km of the centre of Boalhosa, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 112 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 August 2016 to 29 August 2016. 8 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.